OurTupelo

What began as a day that felt victorious for everyone who wanted the Confederate monument relocated from its prominent position at the University of Mississippi quickly turned confusing and disappointing.

After the the Board of Trustees of the Institutions of Higher Learning voted on Thursday morning to relocate the Confederate monument at the University of Mississippi, a rendering of what appeared to be a plan for the relocated statue began circulating. The rendering depicts the monument in the center of a broad brick pathway on a manicured landscape surrounded by in-ground lighting that would presumably illuminate it.

University of Mississippi

This is an unofficial artist’s rendering of what the Confederate monument site could look like at the University of Mississippi once the monument is moved.

“There’s a bench in the picture. Are you going to sit down on the bench and look at it? That’s not education, that’s glorification,” said Josh Mannery, Associated Student Body president at UM. “I think that somehow if this ends up being true they managed to make the relocation worse.”

The university responded that the renderings being widely shared are not the official plans for the cemetery, but an idea of what the plan could be. 

“These are an artist’s renderings, and the plans have continued to evolve since the renderings were completed,” a university spokesman told Mississippi Today in a statement. “These renderings were used as supporting documentation in the university’s submission and in conversations between Chancellor (Glenn) Boyce and the (IHL board) to offer visuals of what the site could look like in accordance with state law, which allows a monument to be moved ‘to a more suitable location if it is determined that the location is more appropriate to displaying the monument.’”

A group of student activists worked for months to get the Confederate monument moved from the heart of campus to the on-campus cemetery. The cemetery, which holds unmarked graves where hundreds of Confederate soldiers are said to be buried, is located in a quiet corner of campus, tucked behind the old basketball arena and some parking lots.

University of Mississippi

This is an unofficial artist’s rendering of what the Confederate monument site could look like at the University of Mississippi once the monument is moved.

The monument’s relocation and cemetery upgrades are expected to cost $1.15 million, which will be privately funded, according to information shared with the IHL board this week.

“The university’s privately funded plan proposes relocation to the University Cemetery because a cemetery is sacred ground that serves as the final resting place of the fallen,” the university’s project proposal, submitted this week to the IHL board, stated. “For that reason, cemeteries have long been deemed appropriate places for war memorials … and the relocation of the monument immediately adjacent to the cemetery would place the monument in a broader and more proper historical context.”

As part of relocating the monument, the university will construct a well lit, brick path to the monument, which was placed on the campus by the Daughters of the Confederacy in 1906. A new marker will also be added to the cemetery to “recognize the men from Lafayette County who served in the Union Army as part of the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War,” the proposal states. Cameras will be installed around the cemetery to allow the University Police Department to monitor it.

The university’s clarification about the renderings this week did not assuage frustrations and concerns from students and faculty this week.

Anne Twitty, associate professor of history at UM, was a member of the committee that in part was tasked with creating plaques that contextualized vestiges of slavery and the Confederacy around campus.   

“Just the second you think that you finally achieved your goal, you find out that there’s now a new front in what seems like a never ending war,” Twitty said. “That’s very frustrating. And it’s like all this is happening because they weren’t transparent with us. They didn’t tell us what was going on. And they promised us that they would.”

Twitty has raised concerns about the lack of transparency around the relocation process and the plan for the relocation itself. Aside from the overall design which some feel exalts the Confederate monument, the plan also includes headstones to acknowledge the other Confederate soldiers buried there.

“This fantasy that you can go into this resting place and put up headstones when you don’t know exactly who was still there, and when you don’t know where they’re located on that plot — that strikes me as deeply offensive,” Twitty said. “I think what that rendering sort of suggests is a kind of Confederate-palooza that the university wants to establish in its back forty and it just means that they’re replacing one site for Lost Cause nostalgia, which is currently at the entrance to our campus, with another one.”

Students also felt misled, misrepresented and generally left out of the conversation about the rendering that was drawn up.

“I’m disappointed again that I’m finding out about it the day of the relocation,” Mannery said. “It just seems like student input wasn’t valued.”

Arielle Hudson, one of the co-authors of the student resolution that put this entire process in motion, noted that part of the proposal submitted to IHL listed a variety of student groups who had endorsed the plan.

“None of the campus constituency groups have even seen these updated plans so we wanted to make it clear that this was not endorsed at all and that we are not in support of making the cemetery into a glorified shrine of the Confederacy,” Hudson said.

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Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Courtney Webster, center, is surrounded by family members after Greenville High School’s graduation Thursday, May 21, 2020.

For the past decade, the Mississippi Department of Education manipulated graduation rates and has been “apathetic” about taking initiative to reduce the dropout rate, an investigation conducted by the state auditor’s office found. The Mississippi Department of Education denies these assertions.

Shad White speaks at the Westin Jackson Tuesday, November 5, 2019.

“Mississippi’s teachers, parents, and administrators have worked together to improve our graduation rate over the past few years, and that’s a commendable, important achievement,” State Auditor Shad White said in a release. “But some of that improvement in the graduation rate, is just due to a change in the way MDE calculated the graduation rate. You have to be honest about it.”

The 17-page performance audit claimed the department didn’t accurately report graduation rates to the Mississippi State Board of Education or create the Office of Dropout Prevention, which was tasked with overseeing the statewide dropout prevention plan and increasing graduation rates.

In a 41-page response, state superintendent Carey Wright denied or clarified many of the report’s assertions.

Kayleigh Skinner, Mississippi Today

State Education Superintendent Carey Wright

“…the MDE emphatically denies the use of inapplicable graduation rate data when reporting to the State Board of Education and to the general public,” the letter, dated June 18 said. “The MDE has gone to great lengths to ensure accurate data (sic) is presented to the SBE and the public, and we take great umbrage at allegations to the contrary.”

The report said graduation and dropout rates were calculated to include repeaters, or students who repeated 12th grade until 2007, when the state board of education changed the way these rates are calculated and repeaters were no longer factored into the rates. According to the report, this altered the calculations to push Mississippi’s graduation rate to increase by nearly 10 points, from 61.1 percent to 70.8 percent within two months. The department didn’t alert the Legislature of the amended changes or amend the changes in the statewide prevention plan, the report said.

In response, Wright included documentation from 2007 that shows the department changed the way graduation rates are calculated because it had to due to a change in federal law. Before the change in 2007, graduation rates included students earning traditional diplomas and special education students earning occupational diplomas. But those special education students were removed from graduation rate calculations because federal requirements include “only students graduating from high school with a regular diploma.”

The department’s response said this change had a negligible effect, dropping the graduation rate for the 2004-2005 graduating cohort from 61.1% to 60.8% statewide. The response did not specifically address the auditor’s assertion that the department increased the statewide graduation rate by ten points in two months.

In Mississippi, the graduation rate is calculated in a “four-year cohort,” meaning, rather than count the number of students who graduated in a specific year, instead, this figure is calculated based on the students who started in the ninth grade and made it to 12th grade. This allows for a graduation rate of a full cohort rather than one 12th-grade class, and is “considered a more comprehensive picture of the issue of students’ persistence and high school completion,” according to the department. For example, the 2020 graduation rate represents the students who entered the ninth grade for the first time in the 2015-16 school year. Separately, the annual dropout rate is the number and percentage of students who drop out during one school year.

“Given the tremendous progress Mississippi students, teachers and schools have made over the past six years, it is disheartening to read a report that focuses on outdated procedures that have not been effective,” Wright said. “The State Board of Education Strategic Plan has modernized the state’s approach to education, which has resulted in historic and sustained student achievement across Mississippi.”

The state’s high school graduation rate is something department officials and politicians have lauded in recent years. That figure reached an all-time high for the 2018-19 school year, the most recent figure available, at 85 percent, while the dropout rate reached an all-time low of 9.7 percent, according to the department. There are some discrepancies in this figure, however — some schools with F ratings and very low proficiency rates have some of the highest graduation rates. When asked about this last fall, Wright acknowledged this was a concern.

“That is something we are looking at at the department level, to be honest,” Wright said at the time. “It’s hard to believe you have a high graduation rate when you have low proficiency rates.”

The report also said out of 139 local school districts, 73 percent of dropout prevention plans did not meet the department’s requirements. Nearly half of the graduation plans were not being monitored by the department; and 71 percent were not evidence-based, according to the report. It also stated the agency does not monitor if evidence-based programs are effective.

The department acknowledged it “does not have an individual dedicated solely to dropout prevention,” but the agency does have an Office of Dropout Prevention that operates within the Office of Secondary Education. The department also has a strategic plan surrounding long-term student achievement and outcomes, and the state board of education “established a long-term graduation goal of 90% by 2024-25,” Wright included in her response to the auditor’s report.

The auditor’s office had a list of recommendations for the department, including: re-establishing the Office of Dropout Prevention and hiring a director; updating the statewide dropout prevention plan and annually approving local plans; collecting data to measure areas for improvement in dropout prevention; and changing the statute to increase the graduation rate goal, benchmark years, among other suggestions.

Graduation rates for the most recent school year, 2019-20, will not be available until later in the year or early 2021.

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MS.gov

Mississippi state flag

So, the NCAA announced on Friday that Mississippi teams can no longer host college baseball and basketball regionals until the state changes its flag. That’s a big deal. And it will put the Mississippi teams at a competitive disadvantage. It’s bad for our universities, for our athletes, for our fans, for everybody.

That comes a day after the Southeastern Conference joined an ever-growing list of organizations that openly oppose any semblance of the Confederate battle flag. You know, the one that takes up the upper corner of the Mississippi state flag and the one that flies at Ku Klux Klan and Skinhead rallies.

Mississippi State and Ole Miss, the two SEC schools in Mississippi, refuse to fly the state flag. So do the other six state-supported universities. So do the cities of Oxford and Starkville. Hattiesburg, too. Jackson, the state’s largest city won’t fly the flag. It came down this week in Gulfport, the second most populated Mississippi city.

Rick Cleveland

Question: What good is a state flag if so many won’t fly it?

All other southern states have cut ties with the Confederate battle flag. NASCAR, which has been a haven for Confederate flags throughout its history, has banned the banner. Here in Mississippi this week, the Delta Council, which opposed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, came out in favor of changing the flag.

There’s more.

The NCAA announcement came after a group of former Mississippi college athletes Thursday petitioned the NCAA to stop holding post-season events until the state changes its flag. It shouldn’t take sports to influence our legislature and governor to change our archaic flag. But if that’s what it takes, so be it.

It’s time, Mississippi. More to the point, it’s past time.

•••

Long-time readers know where I side on this Mississippi flag controversy. And the fact is, I don’t want to change the flag because of how those outside the state perceive us. I want to change the flag because it is the right thing to do. In 2015, I signed a letter in a full page ad in the Clarion Ledger petitioning for flag change, along with many of the state’s sports heroes, coaches, athletic directors, writers, performers, educators and business leaders. Archie Manning signed it. So did Bailey Howell. So did Boo Ferriss, Jimmy Buffett, John Grisham, Morgan Freeman, Richard Ford, William Winter and many others.

The letter in the ad told of the history of the Confederate battle flag and the Mississippi state flag. How the battle flew over Rebel forces in the Civil War. “The Rebel flag was never meant to fly over state capitols. It was a battle flag, usually carried by a color sergeant at the head of a regiment. With its bright red background and blue ‘southern cross,’ it was meant to be seen through the smoke of battle and to serve as a rallying point. …Thirty years later, in 1894, Mississippi redesigned its flag and incorporated the Rebel emblem in its canton.”

Important to note, there was no vote to change the flag back then. The Legislature passed a bill to change the flag and Gov. John Marshall Stone, a Confederate veteran, signed off on it.

And so it has remained. In 2001, a state referendum was held and Mississippi voters overwhelmingly rejected a clumsy design in favor of the old flag. I wrote a column prior to that referendum stating my thoughts on why we needed a new flag. “Many old flag supporters talk about supporting our heritage. Whose heritage? Look around. One out of every three of us (it is now more) is black. My great grandfather fought for the Confederacy, but my Mississippi heritage is more about manners and civility – about treating people the way I want to be treated – than a piece a cloth. Anything that offends so many Mississippians offends me.”

•••

The old flag is coming down – if not in this session of the Legislature, then some day soon. It will eventually happen because it is the right thing to do. I don’t know how another referendum would go. I do know that many minds have changed over 19 years, and I do know that many of today’s voters hadn’t even been born in 2001.

I also know it doesn’t have to come down to a referendum. Three men – Tate Reeves, Delbert Hoseman and Philip Gunn – can make it happen. And all three know it is the right thing to do, that the state would surely benefit from a change. The Confederate battle flag, in any form, has no place other than a museum in 2020.

In 1865, in surrender, Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate army, told his soldiers, “It’s time to furl the flag boys.”

Folks, that was 155 years ago.

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Kelly Donoho/Mississippi State athletics

This was the scene at an April 27 game at Dudy Noble Field when Mississippi State hosted Georgia. Expect a similar scene, with less sunshine, when State plays Stanford this weekend in an NCAA Super Regional.

Dozens of current and former college athletes are asking top leaders at the NCAA to keep Mississippi from hosting college baseball regionals and women’s basketball tournament games until lawmakers change the state flag, which features the Confederate battle emblem.

The 31 former college athletes, including Jackson State and NBA great Lindsey Hunter, sent the letter on Thursday to top leaders at the NCAA, which oversees athletics of the nation’s colleges and universities. The athletes called the flag “a symbol that has terrorized generations” and “a known symbol of oppression, division and hate.”

College baseball is immensely popular in Mississippi, and the state’s big three universities — Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and Southern Miss — regularly host postseason tournaments. Additionally, Mississippi State has hosted several women’s basketball tournament games in recent years.

“We believe it will finally push Mississippi lawmakers to join civic leaders and the business community in solidarity to take action to de-sanction the current Mississippi state flag,” the athletes wrote.

NCAA letter from athletes (Text)

The NCAA in 2001 passed restrictions for postseason play in Mississippi because of its state flag. But those restrictions do not include postseason bans for several sports.

In their Thursday letter, the athletes argued that the NCAA’s current postseason bans disproportionately affect black college athletes. While the NCAA enforces Mississippi postseason bans for college football and men’s basketball — sports that have high percentages of black players — others sports with very low percentages of black players like baseball, tennis and volleyball have no such Mississippi postseason ban.

In essence, the athletes are asking the NCAA to further tighten their existing postseason restrictions. In the letter, the athletes said that the old policy “must become more restrictive in order to accomplish needed change.”

The letter was sent on the same day that Greg Sankey, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, said in a statement that the SEC would consider banning championship events in Mississippi until the state changes its state flag.

Lawmakers in both the Senate and House have engaged in conversations about changing the state flag since last week as protests about racial equality have continued across the state and nation. Tens of thousands of protesters in Mississippi have focused their demands around the state flag.

But legislators had signaled this week that the efforts to change the flag were on their last breath. Lawmakers plan to leave Jackson for the year on June 28, and the single living piece of legislation that would change the flag appeared to be dead in Senate committee.

“Time is of the essence,” the athletes wrote in their letter to the NCAA. “Because of this current climate of protest and awareness, Mississippi’s legislature has spent the past two weeks reviewing and debating laws to change the state flag. Despite public support for a flag change being at an all-time high, Mississippi’s leadership looks as if they will table the issue during the final weeks of the 2020 session.”

As news spread of Sankey’s statement on Thursday evening, lawmakers began sharing public feedback.

Former Ole Miss football player Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia and one of the most powerful lawmakers at the Capitol, tweeted on Thursday night his support of efforts to change the flag.

“A flag’s sole purpose is to unite a people around a common cause,” Lamar tweeted. “Reality has proven clear that the Mississippi flag no longer unites, but divides us unnecessarily. I will not sit by idly while our college athletes lose their hard earned right to compete in postseason play before our home state fans over a banner that no longer accomplishes its sole mission to unify our people. I will stand up for our student athletes.”

Lamar continued: “It is time to change the flag. It is the right thing to do.”

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Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

A fairgoer holds a Mississippi State flag during the Neshoba County Fair Wednesday, July 31, 2019.

Greg Sankey, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, said in a statement on Thursday evening that the conference would consider banning championship events in Mississippi until the state changes its state flag, which contains the Confederate battle emblem.

As protests regarding racial equities and Confederate iconography rage across the state and nation, lawmakers have discussed changing the state flag the past two weeks — one of the most earnest discussions of changing the state flag since 2001, when Mississippi voters decided nearly 2-to-1 to keep the current flag.

Both Ole Miss and Mississippi State University are members of the SEC.

“It is past time for change to be made to the flag of the state of Mississippi,” Sankey said in the statement. “Our students deserve an opportunity to learn and compete in environments that are inclusive and welcoming to all.”

Mississippi State President Mark Keenum released a statement shortly after Sankey’s statement published.

“Since 2015, our Student Association, Robert Holland Faculty Senate and university administration have been firmly on record in support of changing the state flag,” Keenum said in the statement. “I have reiterated that view to our state’s leaders on multiple occasions, including during face-to-face discussions in recent days and hours. On June 12, I wrote to the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the Mississippi House reaffirming that support. The letter said, in part, that our flag should be unifying, not a symbol that divides us. I emphasized that it is time for a renewed, respectful debate on this issue.”

Ole Miss Chancellor Glenn Boyce and Athletics Director Keith Carter also released a joint statement in response to Sankey’s comments.

“The University of Mississippi community concluded years ago that the Confederate battle flag did not represent many of our core values, such as civility and respect for others,” Boyce and Carter wrote. “In 2015, the university stopped flying the state flag over our campus. Mississippi needs a flag that represents the qualities about our state that unite us, not those that still divide us. We support the SEC’s position for changing the Mississippi state flag to an image that is more welcoming and inclusive for all people.”

One bill that would change the state flag is pending before the Senate Constitution committee, although Sen. Chris Johnson, R-Hattiesburg and chair of the committee, has said he will not take the bill up.

Lawmakers could choose to file any new resolution or bill, but a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate would be required to consider any bill to change the flag. The Legislature is expected to remain in session until next Friday.

Lt. Gov. Hosemann, mum on state flag issue, assures near certain death of bill that would change flag

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Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Gov. Tate Reeves prepares to speak to media after being sworn into office at the Capitol on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020.

The Senate Education committee on Thursday morning rejected the nomination of former Sen. Nancy Collins, a key ally of Gov. Tate Reeves, to the state board of education.

Collins stood before the committee on Thursday morning for her confirmation hearing to serve on the state board of education, which sets policy and makes decisions for the state’s roughly 466,000 public school students.

After she introduced herself to the committee and answered a question from the committee chair, Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, voted to table her nomination. Most members concurred on a voice vote, and the hearing abruptly ended.

The Collins rejection marks a tough defeat for Reeves in his first year as governor. Reeves’ appointment of Collins, announced in January, was met with sharp criticism from public school advocates. She championed controversial school choice legislation on Reeves’ behalf in her five years as a state senator.

In a press conference Thursday, Reeves chalked Collins’ rejection up to Democratic partisan politics, and criticized Senate Republicans for allowing it.

“An awful lot of Republicans are concerned with the amount of influence Democrats have in the Mississippi Senate, particularly with education,” Reeves said. “… Her only sin was being a conservative. She was defeated because she is a conservative. Even more unfortunate is the fact that some of the Republicans on the committee allow that to happen.”

Collins’ nomination was unique in that Reeves announced her nomination in January 2020 during his final days as lieutenant governor, but a back-dated letter obtained by Mississippi Today shows he nominated her in July 2019, when the seat became open. Once the announcement became public, a public education advocacy group began encouraging its members to call state senators and ask them to vote against Collins when her hearing came up.

Besides the delay in Collins taking the seat, the nomination is also unique because Reeves made it as he left office. It’s not unusual for the Senate to decline taking up nominations of the outgoing officeholder and leave the nominations to the new officeholder.

The rejection of Collins’ appointment on Thursday means that Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann will now get to make the nomination for the vacant seat.

Collins had been serving as a state board of education member and participating in meetings since Jan. 16, 2020. The board meets monthly to discuss policy and adopt rules for the Mississippi Department of Education and the state’s public schools. She replaced Charles McClelland, whose term expired in July 2019.

The Mississippi State Board of Education is comprised of nine members who serve nine-year terms. Members are appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the house.

The governor appoints five positions: one school administrator, one teacher, and one individual from the state’s North, Central, South Supreme Court districts, respectively. The lieutenant governor and speaker each get two at-large representatives, meaning they have no residential or occupational requirements on who to choose. The board appoints the state superintendent, who serves as the board secretary, and two student representatives who also serve on the board as a non-voting members.

During her time as a senator, Collins authored a controversial school choice program. The Education Scholarship Account program provides public funds for students with special needs to attend private schools. While some say the program allows parents to do what they think it best for their children, it has been also criticized for multiple reasons, including the charge by a legislative oversight committee that the program lacked accountability. This year, the Legislature revised that program to provide more oversight.

Collins also briefly proposed legislation to the dismay of public retirees, including teachers, that would have frozen for a period of time their annual cost of living adjustment. She opted not to file the legislation after the outcry from retirees.

Collins was defeated in a 2015 re-election campaign by Sen. Chad McMahan, R-Guntown, who serves on the Senate Education committee which took up her confirmation.

Collins’ nomination could technically revived while the Legislature is still in session, but Senate officials confirmed to Mississippi Today that her nomination is dead.

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Bruce Newman, Oxford Eagle

The Confederate monument at the Circle at the University of Mississippi, in Oxford.

The Board of Trustees of the Institutions of Higher Learning has voted to relocate the Confederate monument at the University of Mississippi. 

“The Board reviewed the detailed plans for the new site, considered events on college campuses across the South involving Confederate monuments, and listened to the university’s various constituency groups. The Board subsequently determined relocating the Confederate statue to be most appropriate for Ole Miss moving forward,” said Ford Dye, board president, in a press release sent out by IHL.

The board’s vote happened in the wake of national and statewide protests demanding racial equality, which includes ending the exaltation of Confederate iconography. 

In 2019, a multiracial, bipartisan group of students engineered a plan to move the Confederate statue from its prominent place at the front of the Circle on University Avenue to the campus cemetery, where Confederate soldiers are buried.

During the time of that planning, a Memphis based group of neo-Confederates staged a march to the monument to “draw a line in the sand” over the actions the university has taken over the past two decades to remove or contextualize the traditions and monuments that glorified the Confederacy.

The plan was approved by University of Mississippi representative bodies comprised of undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff and administrators. Athletics Director Keith Carter also signed off on the monument’s relocation.

IHL halted this movement in January when board member Tommy Duff said he wanted more information from the university about it.

For its regular June meeting, a project proposal was submitted to IHL stating, “The university’s privately funded plan proposes relocation to the University Cemetery
because a cemetery is sacred ground that serves as the final resting place of the fallen. For that reason, cemeteries have long been deemed appropriate places for war
memorials … and the relocation of the monument immediately adjacent to the cemetery would place the monument in a broader and more proper historical context.”

Moving the monument is expected to cost $1.15 million, which will be privately funded.

As part of relocating the monument, the university will construct a well lit, brick path to the monument, which was put on the campus by the Daughters of the Confederacy in 1906. 

A new marker will also be added to the cemetery to, “recognize the men from Lafayette County who served in the Union Army as part of the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War,” the proposal states. 

Cameras will be installed around the cemetery to allow the University Police Department to monitor it. 

“It’s great to see that all of our hard work did not go in vain and obviously I’m happy to see it’s been relocated,” said Arielle Hudson, one of the co-authors of the student resolution that put this entire process in motion. 

Hudson added that she is having some concerns now that she has seen the university’s proposed plan for moving the monument.

“We do not want it to become a shrine. We’re still not trying to attract neo-Confederates and I hope they don’t see it as an opportunity to gather there,” Hudson said. 

Josh Mannery, now Associated Student Body president at UM, was a member of the senate who approved the resolution that Hudson co-wrote. 

“Thinking back on it, it’s still one of the coolest moments because there was such an air of something important happening that night,” Mannery said. 

Mannery said he was relieved at IHL’s decision and that the students’ work culminated into something positive. Now that the monument will be relocated, “the ball is back in the university’s corner. Now we can start having conversations about other things that we can change like increasing representation in our faculty and staff, taking more firm stances on issues that marginalize our communities, normalizing a more inclusive Grove, and having conversations about equity.”

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